Everything but code

Clues lurk under every statement.

Truth reveals itself so peacefully it seems.

Clues lurk under every stanza.

Uncle George taught me Elizabethan truth, and softened my heart with Dragon's Breath. I knew him because he permitted it. When asked To Tell The Truth in Miss Kitty's presence, he did so and moved on.

Uncle Bill told his own version of our tale with the kind of truth which can only be appreciated through the eyes of childhood. His quest for noodles and pi, as performed by the voice Buzz, called to me when he moved on.

My ode to the Joy-of-loose-lips is one of forgiveness and mercy, for I am quite certain that a Rosie by any other name would smell better than my sweaty feet.

Clues like us encourage searchers.

To Ro, Alan, my permission.

There are a gazillion different organizations and other entities which are recruiting ideas for how to solve global warming, dependency on fossil fuels, etc.

In the United States, we keep hearing this phrase "reduce dependency on foreign oil" (T. Boone Pickens seems to adopted this as his motto for promoting his wind and natural gas "plan"). This phrase is doublespeak for "don't stop giving ME your money, just stop giving it to THEM". It has VERY LITTLE to do with solving the actual problem: DEPENDENCY ON NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCES.

I am so sick and tired of hearing about alternatives to petroleum WITHIN THE CONFINES OF A CAPITALIST VACCUUM.

For a long time (almost 2 years), I lived the "automobile-less" experiment, traveling only on foot or by bicycle.

Within the last 6-8 months, I have devised (within my thoughts) a plan for absolute removal of the "device rental" method of the current capitalist system. (You do realize that you don't OWN your car; you just RENT it from the oil companies at a "cents per mile" rate. The same goes for your electronic devices: cellphones, PDAs, PCs, etc.)

Because I arrived late to the library today, I can only post this introductory message (library closes in 10 min., and I'm typing as fast as I can to complete this post coherently).

Please follow along with this blog thread if you want to discover how to capture enough energy, at your own home, to power your entire household... without burning any fossil fuels, without using toxic (eventually disposable, one way or another) batteries, and without paying "rent" on the devices which accomplish this feat.

Now, I must close this post. I hope to return to the library tomorrow so that I can resume posting on this topic matter.

Ciao,

TheGuyWhoDidTheImpossibleInMUSH

p.s. I realize this isn't a "MUSH" topic, but it is (IMO) an important topic for everyone, including MUSHers. Peace.

Innovations in Text-based Gaming conference (ITBG) is a mostly annual event which has taken place on M*U*S*H in Fall since 1998. ITBG is a gathering of people playing and making text-based games, with the purpose of sharing new ideas. The logs of previous ITBGs are available at http://mush.pennmush.org.

This year, the seventh ITBG conference will be hosted on October 25th by M*U*S*H (mush.pennmush.org 4201). People who'd like to hold presentations about their innovations (already implemented, or yet to be implemented) in text-based gaming are invited to propose presentations.

If you'd like to hold a presentation, please send an e-mail to Tyr at vilkata.lanna@gmail.com with the title and explanation of the topic of the presentation (the explanation doesn't have to be detailed), before October 18th.

I've started teaching a small group of 4th and 5th graders (age 10 and 11) about text based games. We are meeting in an after school program. I wrote my first introduction about this project here and cross-posted it to to a couple of community listserves.

Yesterday was our first class, and I admit, I was nervous. How would a 11 year old kid respond to a text-based game in 2008? My anxiety increased as one of the kids asked me if we were going to design video games. I told him no, we might design text-based games if we have time. I started with an introduction "you are about to play one of the very first computer games" (ok, a bit of a stretch, but it's kind of close). Enticed, they started typing

On the screen, a blue screen with the words "You are standing West of a white house...."

I wrote the cardinal directions on a whiteboard, as well as some commands they might need (look, i, open, close, etc..). Then they began. There was some initial playing with the parser:

kid -> "you are stupid"
Zork -> "I don't know the word "you"
kid -> "what am I supposed to do?"

I teased them a bit. "Make sure you examine everything, and if you find a weapon, I strongly suggest you get it...never know when you're going to run into a troll who wants to eat you...."

The kids looked at me in disbelief. Troll? Weapons? Combat? WHERE?! They became glued to their screens and excitedly started pointing and yelling.

I was almost brought to tears (literally) when a young voiced piped up "Um, Mr. MacKenty, What's a Grue?". I immediately halted the class and we reviewed the wikipedia entry about grues. I carefully explained that grues are sort of like rattlesnakes, in that they like to be left alone - but if they are annoyed, they might eat you. I told them if they want to avoid being eaten, it's best to have some light available. Immediately they started asking each other about the brass lantern in the old white house.

It was about 35 minutes into the class I realized how utterly and completely captivated the kids were. I mean, they were literally glued to the screens; in a state of flow - they were consulting invisclues, they had printed maps, and they were trying to write a guide to solve the game quickly. It was a wonderful experience.

They didn't solve zork, we ran out of time. But they did download the interpreter and the z machine files to usb drives so they could play it at home.

We'll continue with Zork I next week, and I hope to introduce MUD's the week after.

This is why I love teaching.

The sort-of-annual Innovations in Text-Based Gaming conference is scheduled for Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 3:00 pm US Central time (UTC-0500) at M*U*S*H (mush.pennmush.org 4201 or 4202 for ssl). A call for presentations will soon be posted, but in the meantime, save the date!

In honor of Brigadoon Day, the original DuneMUSH will return for
BrigaDUNE Day on Wednesday, August 20, 2008.

Return to the sands of Arrakis, the courtyards of Kaitain, the Bene
Gesserit School on Wallach IX, the vast heighliners of the Spacing
Guild, and the rest of the Duniverse! Visit old friends, get in a
little RP for old times' sake, or just stop by to say hello.
Even if you didn't have a character on DuneMUSH, you're welcome to visit.

DuneMUSH will be at: mush.pennmush.org 5555

The MUSH will be up by midnight (CDT) Tuesday and will go down
sometime after midnight Wednesday (i.e. Thursday morning).

Ya hya chouhada!

CyberMUSH is now accepting applications for administrative positions from anyone interested in helping a cyberpunk-themed MUSH go live - softcode, hardcode, hosting, you name it. If interested, contact misfit815@yahoo.com.

On a similar note, I don't know of a single cyberpunk-themed MUSH already out there. If you're connected to one, let's get together and talk.

J

This has been driving me nuts, hopefully someone knows what the deal is. I've noticed on some PennMUSH games, there's a slight delay between seeing an object's name and its description when looked at. There's just a slight pause, enough to make the title seem separate from the description. I've also noticed that this doesn't happen on M*U*S*H.

I've spent a long time spelunking through mush.cnf and the help files and couldn't find anything hinting as to how to handle this. The boxes I'm testing this game on are both very fast, and one is local (which rules out net lag). Is there a compile option or config directive that sucks resources to the point where this delay becomes that pronounced? I've never seen this problem on MUX, even the old versions.

Any advice is appreciated!

Good day!

For those that remembered Star Wars: The Ascent, I was Ataru there, the Head Wiz. Now those who did play there know that a RL mountain climbing accident took me away from the game and alas the game withered and died. I have officially closed its doors.

BUT, I am NOW* interested in starting a game based on Cadwallon, an RPG based on Rackham's Confrontation miniatures game. What I am looking for are people who actually know WTF I am talking about :) If you do and have interest in such a thing, please do contact me here, at OGR or at MUSHPark. I will be posting updates on the development of the game as they happen. Thank you!

*Thanx for finding that typo!

Dear MUSH players and game admins,

I am conducting a research study on the connections between
MUSHes and MUSH players, and I invite you (and the players
of your MUSH(s)) to participate. The survey is at http://javelin.pennmush.org/survey/ and here is more information:

Alan Schwartz, Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at
Chicago (and known around MUSHes as Javelin, former PennMUSH developer),
is seeking players to participate in an 5-minute anonymous survey
as part of a study of the interconnections between MUSHes and MUSH
players. This project has been determined to be exempt from review by
the UIC Institutional Review Board.

The survey will ask you to indicate which of a list of MUSHes you
currently play or staff on, as well as a few optional demographic
questions. You will not be asked to provide your name. Responses to
the survey will be used to better understand how MUSH are connected by
players in common and how players are connected by MUSHes in common.

To participate in this project, visit: http://javelin.pennmush.org/survey/

For further questions, you may contact Alan via email at alansz@uic.edu
or javelin@pennmush.org.

Thanks for your help!